Pastor Bob Tousey is the father of two adult children and the proud grandfather of three. He Grew up on Long Island and served in the United States Air Force and has spent most of his adult life in Maryland. He was ordained in 2001 and often blogs about life's challenges, including his own and how God allows us to uses challenges to serve His Kingdom. Follow Pastor Bob on Twitter www.twitter.com/pastorbobtousey

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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

St. Patrick: More than Corned Beef & Green Beer. He was the Greatest Missionary (2015)

St.
Patrick: More than Corned Beef & Green Beer. He was the Greatest Missionary. (2015)

We
all realize that St. Patrick’s Day is a very popular holiday celebrated worldwide. Many think of St. Patrick’s Day as a day of
parades, parties and green beer. Not about who St. Patrick was and what he
accomplished. My goal today is to let
the world know about St. Patrick and the great way he carried out Jesus’ Great
Commission by converting a country of pagans to Christianity.

It
is widely believed that Patrick was not his birth name but a name he assumed
when he became a Priest. It is thought
that his birth name was Maewyn Succat. Imagine
celebrating St. Maewyn’s Day?

Saint
Patrick is universally recognized as “The Greatest Missionary”. Legend has it that St. Patrick drove the
snakes out of Ireland. However, it is
unlikely Ireland ever had snakes and it is often believed that the story is
symbolic and the snakes refer to the pagans.

Now
let’s examine the Great Commission and how St. Patrick’s answered Jesus’ call.

First, what is the Great
Commission?

After His Resurrection, Jesus
charged His remaining eleven Apostles with carrying out the Great Commission. The Apostles went to a
mountain top in Galilee and Jesus presented them with one final command. This command is found in the Gospel of
Matthew 28:18-20. Let me share Jesus’
words with you.

“All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I
suspect that His Apostles were surprised.
They most likely expected Him to transform the earth himself but He did
not. He left that work for them and now
us. Many Christians today have a similar
expectation. Sharing the good news
cannot be the job of “ordinary” Christians.
That is the job of Pastors and missionaries but as we will learn this is
not the case. It is the job of each and
every one of us.

Before
we examine how St. Patrick was able to carry out the Great Commission like no
other since the Apostles, I want to take a moment and unpack what Jesus told
His friends when He gave them this command.
First, He said that He had all authority in heaven and on earth. In other words, He has the same authority as God the
Father. Then He went on to delegate the
responsibility of spreading the word.
Notice He instructed them to make disciples of all nations. This made clear that He expected them to
leave the comfort zones of their home towns.
He wanted them to share what they have experienced and learned with the
entire world.

Who was St. Patrick?

I
would now like to transport you back in time to St. Patrick’s birth in approximately
387 AD and introduce you to him.

There
is little known about St. Patrick but it is commonly believed that he was born
in the late fourth century in Britain to Roman parents of some economic
means. His dad was a Deacon and his
grandfather a Priest. This was a time
when Priests could marry and have families.
As a teenager Patrick was rebellious and despite his family background was
not at all religious.

When
he was about 16 he was captured by pirates, taken to Ireland and sold into
slavery. As a slave he was a shepherd
and tended to his master’s sheep. During
this time he began to pray and developed a vibrant and loving relationship with
Jesus.

In
his early twenties God spoke to him in a dream and told him to flee his master
and a boat will be waiting to take him home.
He followed God’s direction and incredibly traveled 200 miles on foot
and avoided capture before reaching the boat.
When he returned home he entered the seminary and became a Priest. God then commanded him to return to Ireland,
preach the Gospel and plant churches for the pagans.

Now
let’s put this in perspective. In those
days the Irish were widely considered to be illiterate drunks who engaged in
wild orgies and would worship anything.
They were known to be violent, lawless, and where even known to run
naked into battle. Now that is a visual
that I did not need, but it is what the history books tell me and I wanted to
accurately relay history.

In
spite of the danger, Patrick did not question God’s command to return to the Irish
isle where he had been enslaved. In fact,
Patrick renounced his family’s wealth to live a life of charity and poverty as
an itinerant preacher. He sold all of
his possessions including his land to finance the journey so that he could
share God’s word with those who held him in slavery.

Once
he got to Ireland, he had to pay large sums to Irish tribal chiefs so that he
could safely travel though their lands and preach the Gospel. Think of the fear St. Patrick must have felt
and the willing sacrifices he made to comply with God’s will.

He
had, what at the time was a unique strategy, to convert the masses. He would begin by converting their leaders,
praying for the sick, and casting out demons.
While we do not know a lot of the details concerning St. Patrick’s
ministry we can assume he was a humble man of service and unconditional love.

St.
Patrick was also a gifted teacher. He
used visual aids to convince people to put their faith in Jesus. His most famous visual aid was a Shamrock
which is a three leaf clover that grows in Ireland. He used the Shamrock to explain the
trinity. The Shamrock, as you can see,
is one leaf but with three parts just like the Trinity is one person with three
parts --- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This simple visual aid was able to plainly
explain one of the most difficult concepts of Christianity.

As
Patrick continued his ministry he built simple churches, baptized converts,
trained Pastors and moved on. In his
life time he planted 700 churches, ordained 1,000 priests and converted an
entire country. Imagine the enormity of
that task.

The
foundation that Patrick built still stands today almost 1,800 years later. In 2006 over 90% of the Irish population
identified themselves as Christians and in 2009 46% of Ireland attended weekly
church services.

Most
of us are not going to be able to make the sacrifice that St. Patrick made and
we are probably not equipped to convert an entire country, plant 700 churches
or train and ordain 1,000 Pastors. At least I don’t think I am. But collectively Christians together can
successfully carry out the command.

Let’s
examine how the church is growing today in places like, Africa and Latin
American. In the year 1900 there were
only 9 million Christians in Africa, in 2000 there were 380 million. It is estimated by 2025 there will be 633
million Christians. In Central and South
America 93 and 89% respectively are Christians.

In
his book, Multiply, Francis Chan noted that “[t]he Pastor is the equipper, and
every member of the church is a minister.”
God is calling upon each and every one of us to be a minister, a
minister who humbly serves their neighbors.

God
created each and every one of us to play a role in His plan. He provides for us. It is important for each of us to identify
the gifts which God has equipped us with and then to use these gifts to carry
out the Great Commission.

Carrying
out the Great Commission is a lifelong process. It is not something we do once and cross it
off the “to do” list. It is something we
must do every day. Most of the time we
will serve others in very simple ways that we do not even realize.

Each of us must remember
that we have God given gifts and abilities and what we do with these abilities
is our gift back to God.

Reaching
out and sharing our faith is not limited to preaching the Gospels in a formal
way. We can share the Gospel and our
faith in the way we live our lives, how we serve and love others. Today on St. Patrick’s Day might be the
perfect opportunity to take a personal inventory of our God given gifts and
assess how we can better answer Jesus’ command to carry His message.

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About Me

Bob is a Christian Pastor. Bob holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. He is currently an MBA candidate at Liberty University. Bob is also Chair of the Governor's Commission on Suicide Prevention. He has previously served as a fire department Chaplain and International Vice President of Parents Without Partners. Bob has spoken
at conferences through out the United States and Canada. Bob is the Father of 2 adult children
and grandfather of 4.